The Night the Martians Landed

by Beverly Brown "War of the Worlds" Tricked a Nation...

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles presented "War of the Worlds," the "radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo!" And people all over the country jumped with fright as a program of dance music was interrupted by a series of chillingly realistic news bulletins announcing that Martians had landed in the small New Jersey town of Grovers Mill.

Millions of people were listening to the broadcast. Hundreds of thousands panicked, believing the news bulletins were real. Frightened listeners tied up telephone lines seeking more information and instructions, and created traffic jams in attempts to flee the attacking extra-terrestrials.

The broadcast, an original radio script by Howard Koch based on the 1898 novel by English author H. G. Wells, was presented on "Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater," a regular Sunday night program on the CBS Radio Network.

The panic was short-lived but Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" found a place in American history as one of the greatest Halloween pranks ever played.

Paul Moran of Little Meadows, Pennsylvania, and Princeton Junction, New Jersey, was 10-years-old when the Martians "landed" in Grovers Mill on October 30, 1938. Like millions of people, he was listening to Orson Welles' radio drama "War of the Worlds." Unlike most listeners, Paul was only a mile-and-a-half from the Martian landing site of Grovers Mill.

Every Sunday, Paul and his mother visited relatives in nearby Plainsboro, New Jersey, while the rest of the family - Paul's father, sisters, and brother - were working. And every Sunday, Paul and his 14-year-old cousin Jack Holohan listened to Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the radio in Jack's bedroom while the adults gathered for a serious game of cards at another relative's just two doors away.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt our program of dance music to bring you a special bulletin... At twenty minutes before eight, central time, Professor Farrell of the Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois, reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the plant Mars."

"It started like a bulletin," Paul remembers. "You wouldn't know the difference. It was scary. Even Jack, a 14-year-old, thought it was real."

"It is reported that at 8:50 pm, a huge, flaming object, believed to be a meteorite, fell on a farm in the neighborhood of Grovers Mill, New Jersey..."

"When we heard Grover's Mill, that really caught our attention. That got us going," Paul said. Grovers Mill was only a mile and a half from Jack's house.

"Yes, I guess that's the... thing, directly in front of me, half buried in a vast pit.... It looks more like a huge cylinder. It has a diameter of.... about thirty yards..."

"The scariest part was when he was telling about silos 2000 feet from where we were," Paul said. "We ran up the street and told (the adults) to turn on the radio. It was so real. It was so close."

The adults threw their cards down, turned on the large, console radio, and listened. Paul's mother and Aunt Veronica Holohan dropped to their knees and started praying the Rosary. "They wanted us to, too," said Paul. But the boys were too excited for that.

Paul's Aunt Elizabeth Hickey, who preferred reading to card playing, merely continued reading. Paul's Uncle Jack Holohan said 'Oh, that's that damned Orson Welles!' and, along with Uncle Tom Hickey, was more interested in getting back to playing cards.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is terrifying. This end of the thing is beginning to flake off! The top is beginning to rotate like a screw! The thing must be hollow!....Good Heavens, something's wriggling out of the shadow like a grey snake.... They look like tentacles to me. There, I can see the thing's body. ... But that face. It...It's indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seam to quiver and pulsate..."

The boys ran back to Jack's house and continued listening to the broadcast. "When they mentioned... Wilmuth Farm, we went out to see." The night was foggy and Paul remembers how the "fog would play tricks on your eyes. Anything moves in that fog and your imagination runs away with you."

Paul Moran, (left) at age 9, always listened to Orson Wells and the Mercury Theater on Sunday night with his cousin Jack Holohan.
(right)Paul's cousin Jack Holohan at agee 14. Jack died on February 7, 1945, when he was shot down over oil fields in Hungary during World War II.



"Of course, we didn't see anything. But there was car after car wanting to know where Grovers Mill was." Paul was amazed at how many cars there were, and that there were families with children in the cars. Paul and Jack told the drivers to go straight ahead, over the railroad bridge and turn right. "Once we told them that, they were gone. You could hear their brakes squeal. I couldn't believe it. It was the most traffic I'd seen in that road."

When the adults finished their card game, they returned to Jack's house. Paul's father soon arrived to take Paul and his mother home and they got into their 1937 Chevy for the 3-mile drive home to Princeton Junction - a drive that would take them right through Grovers Mill - and the Martians! As they left, Cousin Jack said to Paul, "Well, let me know how many Martians you see."

There was a lot of traffic on the narrow road to Grovers Mill. "There were cars parked along the road, you had to go around them," Paul said. "We were driving along and I was looking at everything that moved on the side of the road, thinking 'there they are!' I was so excited and I had no idea what we were going to see."

But, there were no Martians at Grovers Mill. "There was nothing there," said Paul. "Cars and people, and police trying to get rid of them. Most people didn't stay that long." People were just standing around, quiet. "It was disappointing. So, we went home."

The next day, newspapers carried stories of the broadcast and the panic it caused. "The Trenton Times mentioned the traffic at Grovers Mill and that people in New York were jumping out of windows, " Paul remembers.

Paul told his best friend, Bob Courtney, about his adventures with the "Martians" the night before. Bob hadn't heard the broadcast or anything about it. "He wondered why I was out so late!" Paul said. At school, Paul's 5th grade teacher, Matilda O'Brien, wanted to know if anyone heard the broadcast. "I was shy, so I didn't raise my hand," said Paul. "So, Bob said 'Paul Moran was there.' So, I had to stand up and give a report." Another friend, John Janick, was impressed with Paul's story and told him, "Gee, you really had an experience!"

"After that, it kind of died down. No one said anything," Paul said. They seldom talked about it."Of course, it's a big deal now. It really put the town on the map. When I traveled across the country as a salesman, people remembered Grovers Mill and the "War of the Worlds" broadcast. You tell them you live in central Jersey, and they all know Grovers Mill is there and they ask you about it."

Today, some people wonder how anyone could have been fooled by the broadcast. "Remember the times," explains Paul. "(It was) 1938. Things were building up in Europe, with Hitler, with the pre-WWII days. Things in Europe were kind of uneasy,"

"The two of us really thought Martians had landed," said Paul. "I never felt like a fool. It was an experience."

(Left above) Paul Moran and the Zenith radio on which he and his cousin Jack Holohan listened to Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast on October 30, 1938.